Leadership and Employee Performance

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Leadership and Employee Performance
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1LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Leadership and its significance..................................................................................................2
Leadership and the organizations I work for..............................................................................4
Psychological Capital and Leadership.......................................................................................5
Psychological Capital and Leadership in the context of the organization I work for................6
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Literature Gap............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

2LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Introduction
As opined by Chen et al. (2014), the business prospects of a business enterprise
depend to a great extent on the kind of leadership style the concerned organization uses
within its framework for the management of diverse affairs of its organizations. Hoch et al.
(2018) have stated that the process of leadership has undergone a substantial amount of
change in the recent times because of the changes in the needs of the organizations and also
the kind of work that they are required to perform. In this regard, it needs to be said that some
of the most commonly used leadership styles in the earlier times were the Great Man Theory,
Trait Theory, Autocratic Theory and others (Anitha 2014).
Wang et al. (2014) have argued that a common aspect among all the earlier theories of
leadership is the fact that leaders are not created but born and the success or the failure of a
business enterprise depend solely on the abilities of a leader. However, in the recent times it
is seen that transformational leadership theory, authentic leadership, leader-member exchange
(LMX) and others have gained prominence (Chughtai, Byrne and Flood 2015). As stated by
Gardner et al. (2011), the common factor among all these theories is the fact that they believe
in the fact that leaders can be created through effective training and also the followers play an
equally important role within an organization as does the leaders. This paper will undertake a
literature review of the concept of leadership and will also try to analyze its relationship with
the constructs of employee performance and psychological capital.
Leadership and its significance
According to Leroy et al. (2015), the machinery of leadership is the process through
which the leaders influence the behavior of the subordinates or the followers who are
associated with them. Breevaart et al. (2016) are of the viewpoint that in this regard the act of

3LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
motivating the followers is one of the major job roles of the leaders which enables them to
help the followers to achieve the targets or the goals that has been outlined for them. This is
important since it is directly correlated with the performance of the employees which is the
fulcrum point of the contemporary organizations. In addition to this, the contemporary
leaders are also required to perform a wide range of other job roles so as to enable the
followers who are associated with them to achieve the targets that has been given to them in
the most effective manner (Gu, Tang and Jiang 2015). For example, the contemporary leaders
within the framework of the different organizations are required to understand the key
competencies as well as the capabilities of the followers who are associated with them and
delegate tasks on them on the basis of this fact (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider 2015). More
importantly, they are also required to design the jobs that the followers are required to
perform in such a manner that the followers would be able to perform them as per the
expectation of the organization that they are working for.
As argued by Luthans, Youssef and Avolio (2015), the contemporary leaders because
of the changing nature of the business world are required to perform the job roles of not only
the leaders but at the same time that of the managers as well. In this regard, it needs to be said
that the contemporary leaders within the framework of different organizations can be seen as
the stewards of the organizations. Bouckenooghe, Zafar and Raja (2015) are of the viewpoint
that the primary intention behind the plethora of job roles as well as responsibilities that the
contemporary leaders are required to perform is to enhance the performance level of the
employees. The net result of this is the fact that the effectiveness as well as the efficiency of
an organization depends to a great extent on the kind of leadership style the concerned
organization has adopted and also the efficiency with which the concerned leader is being
able to perform their job roles.